A TRACT CONCERNING SCHISME AND SCHISMATIQVES WHEREIN Is briefly discovered the originall causes of all Schisme Written by a Learned and Judicious Divine TOGETHER With certain Animadversions upon some Passages thereof OXFORD Printed by LEONARD LICHFIELD for Edward Forrest 1642. A TRACT CONCERNING SCHISME HEresie and Schisme as they are commonly used are two Theologicall scar crows with which they who uphold a party in Religion vse to fright away such as making enquiry into it are ready to relinquish and oppose it if it appeare either erronious or suspitious for as Plutarch reports of a Painter who having unskilfully painted a Cock chased away all Cocks and Hens that so the imperfection of his Art might not appeare by comparison with Nature so men willing for ends to admit of no fancy but their own endeavour to hinder all enquiry into it by way of comparison of somewhat with it peradventure truer that so the deformity of their own might not appeare but howsoever in the common manage Heresie and Schisme are but ridiculous tearmes yet the things in themselves are of very considerable moment the one offending against Truth the other against Charity and therefore both deadly when they are not by imputation but in deed It is then a matter of no small importance truely to descry the nature of them that so they may feare who are guilty of them and they on the contrary strengthen themselves who through the iniquity of men and times are injuriously charged with them Schisme for of Heresie we shall not now treat except it be by accident and that by occasion of a generall mistake spread through all the writings of the Ancients in which their names are familiarly confounded Schisme I say upon the very sound of the word imports division Division is not but where Communion is or ought to be now Communion is the strength and ground of all Society whether Sacred or Civill whosoever therefore they be that offend against this Common society and friendlinesse of men if it be in civill occasions are guilty of Sedition or Rebellion if it be by reason of Ecclesiasticall difference they are guilty of Schisme So that Schisme is an Ecclesiasticall sedition as Sedition is a lay Schisme yet the great benefit of Communion notwithstanding in regard of divers distempers men are subject to Dissention and Disunion are often necessary For when either false or uncertain Conclusions are obtruded for truth and Acts either unlawfull or ministring just scruple are required of us to be perform'd in these cases consent were conspiracy and open contestation is not faction or Schisme but due Christian animosity For the opening therefore of the nature of Schisme something must be added by way of difference to distinguish it from necessary separation and that is that the cause upon which division is attempted proceed not from Passion or from Distemper or from Ambition or Avatice or such other ends as humane folly is apt to pursue but from well weighed and necessary reasons and that when all other means having been tryed nothing will serve to save us from guilt of Conscience but open separation so that Schisme if we would define it is nothing else but an unnecessary separation of Christians from that part of the visible Church of which they were once members now as in mutinies and civill dissentions there are two attendants in ordinary belonging unto them one the Choyse of an Elector or Guide in place of the Generall or Ordinary Governor to rule and guide the other the appointing of some publique place or Randevous where publike meetings must be celebrated So in Church dissentions and quarrells two appurtenances there are which serve to make Schisme compleat First in the choyce of a Bishop in opposition to the former a thing very frequent amongst the Ancients and which many times was the cause and effect of Schisme Secondly the erecting of a new Church and Oratory for the dividing parts to meet in publiquely For till this be done the Schisme is but yet in the wombe In that late famous Controversy in Holland De Pradestinatione auxiliis as long as the disagreeing parties went no farther then Disputes and Pen-Combats the Schisme was all that while unhatched but as soon as one party swept an old Cloyster and by a pretty Art suddenly made it a Church by putting a new Pulpit in it for the separating party there to meet now what before was a Controversy became a formall Schisme To know no more then this if you take it to be true had been enough to direct how you are to judge and what to think of Schisme and Schismatiques yet because of the Ancients by whom many are more affrighted then hurt much is said and many fearefull doomes are pronounced in this case we will descend a little to consider of Schisme as it were by way of story and that partly farther to open that which we have said in generall by instancing in particulars and partly to disabuse those who reverencing Antiquity more then needs have suffered themselves to be scared with imputation of Schisme above due measure for what the Ancients speake by way of censure of Schisme in generall is most true for they saw and it is no great matter to see so much that unadvised and open fancy to break the knot of union betwixt man and man especially amongst Christians upon whom above all other kind of men the tye of love and communion doth most especially rest was a crime hardly pardonable and that nothing absolves men from the guilt of it but true and unpretended Conscience yet when they came to pronounce of Schisme in particular whether it was because of their own interest or that they saw not the truth or for what other cause God only doth know their judgements many times to speak most gently are justly to be suspected which that you may see we will range all Schisme into two rankes First there is a Schisme in which only one party is the Schismatique for where cause of Schisme is necessary there not he that separates but he that is the cause of separation is the Schismatique Secondly there is a Schisme in which both parties are the Schismatiques for where the occasion of separation is unnecessary neither side can be excused from guilt of Schisme But you will aske who shall be judge what is necessary Indeed it is a question which hath been often made but I think scarcely ever truly answered not because it is a point of great depth or difficulty truly to assoyle it but because the true solution of it carries fire in the taile of it for it bringeth with it a piece of doctrine which is seldome pleasing to Superiors To you for the present this shall suffice If so be you be animo defaecato if you have cleared your selfe from froath and grownes if neither sloath nor feare nor ambition nor any tempting spirit of that nature abuse you for these and such as these are the
if the discretion of the chiefest guides of the Church did in a point so triviall so inconsiderable so mainely faile them as not to see the truth c. But you build too large a structure upon such a sandy foundation For here the discretion of the chiefest guides of the Church did not faile them as you imagine but they constantly kept their own severall customes in love and charity and therefore without Schisme till Victor would needs take too much upon him whereas the whole businesse was afterwards setled in that famous Councell of Nice So that here is no oversight of any truth as I conceive unlesse as you intimate before the truth is they should have kept no Easter at all and then as you say it was most unnecessary and most vaine to strive about the time of keeping it But such a truth as this the Christian world hath not yet embraced neither doe I know when it will So that for ought yet appeares unlesse you bring better reason against them we may take good directions from antiquity in the resolution of our moderne controversies and we may for all this examine the question on foot by the doctrine of those purer times and Heroick spirits although you are pleased to terme them poore spirited persons Which to mee seemeth a very strange appellation was S. Ambrose a poore spirited person who durst excommunicate that great Emperour Theodosius and forbid him to enter into the Church Was S. Chrisostome a poor spirited person who did preach against Eudoxia the Empresse and valiantly suffered banishment for it Was S. Athanasius either a poor spirited person who durst stand out even against all the World as it is storied of him Athanasius against the world and the world against Athanasius Or were any of those Fathers poor spirited persons who did couragiously suffer martyrdome for the testimony of Christ Can you name any one author auncient or moderne that hath so called or esteemed of them If not then it is but thus with you The Fathers are poor spirited persons because I say so who am animo defaecato Neither are you yet constant to your selfe in this assertion for although here you call them poor spirited persons yet afterwards you doe in effect unsay it where you so much approve of what Socrates observeth of them that they were the great disturbers of the Christian world Doe poore spirited persons use to make such hurly burlies Pardon me say you I know not what temptation drew this note from me And if you would pardon me I could give a great guesse at the temptation I feare it is a temptation of pride and singularity thus to trample upon those auncient worthies the better to make way for some kind of novelty And I would it were no worse then this of not keeping Easter TRACT The next Schisme which had in it matter of fact is that of the Donatist who was perswaded at least pretended so that it was unlawfull to converse or communicate in holy duties with men stained with any notorious sinne for howsoever that Austen doe specifie only the Thurificati and Traditores and Libellatici c. as if he separated only from those whom he found to be such yet by necessary proportion he must referre to all notorious sinners upon this he taught that in all places where good and bad were mixt together there could be no Church by reason of Pollution evaporating as it were from sinners which blasted righteous persons who conversed with them and made all unclean on this ground separating himselfe from all that he list to suspect he gave out that the Church was no where to be found but in him and his Associates as being the only men among whom wicked persons found no shelter and by consequence the only cleare and unpolluted company and therefore the only Church Against this Saint Augustine laid downe this Conclusion Vnitatem Ecclesiae per totum Mundum dispersae propter nonnullorum peccata non esse deserendam which is indeed the whole summe of that Fathers disputation against the Donatists Now in one part of this Controversy one thing is very remarkable The truth was there where it was by meer chance and might have been on either side the reason brought by either party notwithstanding for though it were Defacto false that pars Donati shut up in Africke was the only Othodox party yet it might be true notwithstanding any thing Saint Augustine brings to confute it and on the contrary though it were de facto true that the part of Christians dispersed over the whole Earth were Orthodox yet it might have been false notwithstanding any thing Saint Augustine brings to confirme it For where or amongst whom or how many the Church shall be or is is a thing indifferent it may be in any number more or lesse it may be in any Place Country or Nation it may be in all and for ought I know it may be in none without any prejudice to the definition of a Church or the truth of the Gospell North or South many or few dispersed in many places or confined to one None of these doe either prove or disprove a Church Now this Schisme and likewise that former to a wise man that well understands the matter in Controversie may afford perchance matter of pitty to see men so strangely distracted upon fancy but of doubt or trouble what to doe it can yeeld none for though in this Schisme the Donatist be the Schismatick and in the former both parties be equally ingaged in the Schisme yet you may safely upon your occasions communicate with either if so be you flatter neither in their Schisme For why might not it be lawfull to goe to Church with the Donatist or to celebrate Easter with the Quartodeciman if occasion so require since neither Nature nor Religion nor Reason doth suggest any thing of moment to the contrary For in all publique meetings pretending holinesse so there be nothing done but what true Devotion and piety brooke why may not I be present in them and use communication with them Nay what if those to whom the execution of the publique service is committed doe something either unseemly or suspitious or peradventure unlawfull what if the garments they weare be censured nay indeed be superstitious what if the gesture of adoration be used to the Altars as now we have learn'd to speak what if the Homilist have preached or delivered any doctrine of the truth of the which we are not well perswaded a thing which very often falls out yet for all this we may not separate except we be constrained personally to beare a part in them our selves The Priests under Ely had so ill demeaned themselves about the daily sacrifice that the Scripture tells us they made them to stink yet the People refused not to come to the Tabernacle nor to bring their Sacrifice to the Priest for in those Schismes which concerne fact nothing can be a just cause of
Church since the beginning at least since the originall of Episcopacy as now it is was never to admit at once more than one Bishop in one Sea and so far in this point have they been carefull to preserve unity that they would not have a Bishop in his Sea to have two Cathedrall Churches which thing lately brought us a book out of France De monogamia Episcoporum written by occasion of the Bishop of Laâ—gres who I know not upon what fancy could not be content with one Cathedrall Church in his Diocesse but would needs have two which to the Author of that Work seeme to be a kind of Spirituall Polygamy it fell out amongst the Ancients very often sometimes upon occasion of difference in opinions sometimes because of those who were interessed in the choice of Bishops that two and sometimes more were set up and all parties striving to maintaine their owne Bishop made themselves severall Churches severall Congregations each refusing to participate with others many times proceeding to mutuall excommunications that is that which Cyprian cals Erigere Altare contra Altare to this doth he impute the originall of all Church disorders and if you read him you world thinke he thought no other Church tumult to be Schisme but this This perchance may plead some excuse for though in regard of Religion it selfe it matters not whether there be one or more Bishops in one Diocesse and sometimes two are knowne to have set at once for Epiphanius reckoning up the Bishops of Rome makes Peter and Paul the first and Saint Augustin acknowledgeth for a time he sate fellow Bishop with his predecessor though he excused it that he did so by being ignorant that the contrary had been decreed by the Councell of Nice yet it being a thing very convenient for the peace of the Church to have it so neither doth it any whit savour of vice or misdemeanor their punishments sleeps not who unnecessarily and wantonly goe about to infring it ANIMADVERSION Seventhly you come to Episcopall Ambition then which you say none hath caused more frequent more continuous more sanguineous Schismes It is very true indeed we shall read of many uproares and much bloudshed about the election of some Bishops for which you cannot so much accuse the Bishops as the factious furious and unruly multitude who eagerly pursue their severall humors and are violently carryed into extreames And therefore for the cure of this mischiefe the order and power of Bishops was not taken away but the choice of them you know was taken from the giddy multitude and translated unto the nomination and election of temporall Princes As for your story out of Socrates you should have done well to have put downe the place that your reader might have seene you have urged it to your owne advantage I shall set it downe plainly as I finde it in his proeme to his fift booke where Socrates intending to write an ecclesiasticall history and yet withall is willing to mingle amongst it temporall affaires makes three apologies for it First saith he that these warlike affaires might not be forgotten but come unto posterity for it seemes there were few or no historians in his time The second excuse is which you alledge for variety sake least the reader should be cloyed with perusing only Church affaires which is no more then if a man writing a story of a common-wealth should for variety and delight intermixe here and there businesses of the Church Not that the common-wealth was then more quiet then the Church but there were full as many troubles and tumults in that as in this Nay which may serve somewhat to excuse the unquietnesse of the Clergy it was caused through the disturbance of the common-wealth For that is Socrates his thirde and chiefest reason because by setting downe the affaires of the temporall estate we may knowe from whence these tumults amongst Bishops arose For when saith he the common-wealth was thus tossed up and downe with troubles and seditions with factions and divisions the estate of the Church and chiefest Church-men {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} as it were by a certaine kinde of Sympathy could not chuse but be infected with the same disease Besides suppose some Bishops then were factious and ambitious you should consider that this concerneth the persons of Bishops not their calling though I thinke you might have spared both Now what a vulgar and illogicall way is this through the sides of any mans person to wound his very calling And had our great writer of Bishops lives been as carefull to lay together all that makes for them as he hath been industrious to rake together all that makes against them he might have made his volumes swell twise as bigg TRACT But that other head of Episcopall Ambition concerning Supremacy of Bishops in divers Seas one clayming Supremacy over another as it hath been from time to time a great trespasse against the Churches Peace so it is now the finall ruine of it The East West through the fury of the two prime Bishops being irremediably separated without all hope of Reconcilement And besides all this mischiefe it is founded on a vice contrary to all Christian humility without which no man shall see his SAVIOUR for they do but abuse themselues and others that would perswade us that Bishops by CHRISTS Institution haue any superiority over other men further then of Reverence or that any Bishop is Superior to another further than Positive order agreed upon amongst Christians hath prescribed for we have beleived him that hath told us that in IESVS CHRIST there is neither high nor low and that in giving honour every man should be ready to preferre another before himselfe which saying cuts of all clayme certainly of superiority by title of Christianity except men thinke that these things were spoken only to poore and private men Nature and Religion agree in this that neither of them hath an hand in this heraldry of Secundum sub supra all this comes from Composition and agreement of men amongst themselves wherefore this abuse of Christianity to make it Lacquey to Ambition is a vice for which I have no extraordinary name of Ignominy and an ordinary I will not give it least you should take so transcendent a vice to be but triviall Now concerning Schisme arising upon these heads you cannot be for behaviour much to seek for you may safely communicate with all parties as occasion shall call you and the Schismatiques here are all those who are heads of the faction together with all those who foment it for private and indifferent persons they may be spectators of these contentions as securely in regard of any perill of Conscience for of danger in purse or person I keepe no account as at a Cock fight where serpents fight who cares who hath the better the best wish is that both may perish in the fight And for conventicles of the nature of